The transition from voice-centered to data-centered mobile communication networks has resulted in a variety of additions and modifications to conventional mobile communication networks in order to support significantly higher data rates. One such advancement is the usage of multiple downlink carrier channels, which directly results in large increases in available bandwidth. This increased bandwidth in turn allows for substantially higher data download rates.
While considerable focus has been concentrated on high downlink data rates, significant increases in downlink data rates also requires comparable expansion of uplink data rates. As a result, numerous multiple uplink carrier channel schemes have been introduced, such as Dual-Carrier High Speed Uplink Packet Access (DC-HSUPA), Multi-Carrier HSUPA (MC-HSUPA), and uplink Carrier Aggregation. Similarly to multi-carrier downlink schemes, the aforementioned schemes allocate a plurality of uplink carrier channels for uplink transmission by a single mobile terminal. This increased uplink bandwidth consequently results in higher possible data rates.
As each of the allocated uplink carrier channels is an independent physical channel (i.e. defined by a distinct carrier frequency), each of the uplink carrier channels may exhibit unique channel characteristics as defined by the channel impulse response. Each of the uplink carrier channels may thus exhibit differences in channel characteristics that may vary in time with respect to the other uplink carrier channels, such as due to Doppler shift, path loss, multipath effects, etc.
It is therefore possible that one or more of the allocated uplink carrier channels available to a mobile terminal in a multiple-carrier uplink scheme may be of higher quality than the remaining channels. It subsequently may be feasible to utilize smart selection of uplink data to transmit on each of the channels, as one or more of the allocated uplink carrier channels may offer significantly better protection of data during wireless transmission than the other channels. Selecting an appropriate carrier channel from the available uplink carrier channels with which to transmit important data may therefore offer a number of advantages related to successful reception of the important data by a target receiver.